Valve have once again managed to transform a genre, and taken pure gaming pleasure to brand new, unthought of heights. The sheer number of moments you'll be astounded by the graphical touches, by the storyline, by the sheer polished nature of the title, and even the incredible level design is quite astounding.

Though I may not agree that the style they did this game in isn't the best for the series, as everything seems a bit awkward in its non-realism cartoony world. Still, you find little time to complain when you're engaged in its vast world and incredible gameplay.

Take a large measure of "GTA III"; add a sprinkle of "Vice City", freshly sliced sprigs of nineties gang culture; stir in dashes of "Manhunt", "Fable", and "Dance-Dance Revolution" to taste, then mix in a nitro-powered-blender from hell. Result? Ten out of ten.

The end still lands with a blindsiding jolt. It doesn't help that the last moments of gameplay are so anticlimactic. Regardless of the game's end and its other problems, it takes a fool to say that Halo 2 is a bad game.

Slick, pulse-pounding fun that will have you shouting happily at the top of your voice in shock at the addictive and visceral action onscreen...[But t]o see the computer rewarded for slick driving, and yet not lose anything for crashing is a demoralising and frustrating experience that detracts from the single-player game.

The levels are fantastically designed and when you get the chance to learn the levels and play with similarly skilled players the gameplay goes into overdrive. It's the kind of revolutionary online game that was promised at the beginning of Live, it makes such a change to the diet of FPS' and racing games.

It may be nothing new, but it does each part so incredibly well that you cant help but feel the overall polished feeling of the game is something innovating in today&#146;s world of rush releases. If you need yet another shooter, buy this and you&#146;ll fall in love all over again.

The sheer addictive quality and the fact that Capcom have (once again) gone completely against the grain for the recent trend of titles on this generation of consoles brings about a delight that very few games manage to inflict upon their game players.

The game may not stretch out into an epic fifty-hour quest but it is wonderfully consistent throughout and it's streamlined structure means your interest never wavers for the oh-so-small amount of time it takes to complete.

The addictive quality, and sheer joy to play that were very much there in abundance in the 97/98 and 01/02 iterations of the game has returned, and been incredibly well complemented by some tweaks, and fantastic additions to the overall package.

The fact that the game can be quite easily completed within 10 hours of play may very well put a few people off making the purchase. It has to be said however that these 10 hours of game play are some of the best you'll play in the last few years.

Paper Mario 2 is full to the brim with that classic magical gameplay that only Nintendo can produce. It's witty; it's fun, and highly original in terms of both visual style and gameplay. Even if you hate RPGs, you can't go wrong with this little gem.

Graphical flair, addictive gameplay, and a variety of multiplayer modes that will attract a whole new group of gamers see&#146;s Colin McRae Rally 04 on the PC as one that we can all recommended with great pleasure.

The main failing of the game. It's short. Veterans can get through the game in about eight hours, beginners about fifteen. Even so, I enjoyed every single minute I spent with the game, something I can't say for other quest games that are longer.

It’s almost difficult to put into words how brilliant the game is. It seems to embody everything that gaming is about – pure fun, lacking any frustration at all, requiring the simplest of button presses to absorb you into a world full of colour and beauty that you will get lost in for hours on end.

In the long run, every RPG enthusiast would likely agree that Fable, though not as sophisticated or profound an experience as some other RPG's, is still as purely fun to play as any other title available on the Xbox.

Yes, it's stupendously attractive. Yes it helps draw you into the theme parks that you create. No, the development of this 3D engine seems to have brought its own problems in the shape of quite a few bugs still easy to spot in the final full retail game.